Bed bottom, seat or back



P 1964 E. o. FARSTRUP 3,147,495

BED BOTTOM, SEAT OR BACK Original Filed March 14, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fi a.

E RI K O. FARSTRUP INVENTOR Sept. 8, 1964 I E. o. FARSTRUP 3,147,495

BED BOTTOM, SEAT OR BACK Original Filed March 14, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig. 5 4

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ERIK Q FARSTR UP INVENTR p 3, 1964 E. o. FARSTRUP 3,147,495

BED BOTTOM, SEAT 0R BACK Original Filed March 14, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 711 ,7111? "IIII'A TNIIIAII'I'I'IA ERIK O. FARSTRUP INVENTOR United States Patent 1957. This application Apr. 19, 1962, Ser. No. 191,660 7 Claims. (Cl. -H!) The invention relates to a bed bottom, a seat, or a back with a stiff frame in which carrying members consisting of lamellae are suspended in resilient connecting links.

This application is a continuation of my application Serial No. 645,935, filed March 14, 1957.

For the sake of brevity, bed bottom will be the only word used in the following, but it must be understood that this word should everywhere comprise not only a bed bottom proper, but also a seat, e.g. for a chair or sofa, or a back for such pieces of furniture, in short an element which can be used everywhere in furniture, on which one can sit or lie down, in places where spring mattresses or spring elements are commonly used.

It is known to design a bed bottom in the way stated, in which the carrying members consist of wooden lamellae or lamellae of some other material mounted in a single layer, but they suffer from the drawback that if they are too thin the. layer will get a permanent set, or if they are too thick it will be too stiff to be comfortable to lie down on, being unable to follow the curves of the human body, and it will takeup an oblique position if the body is not placed exactly at the middle of the carrying members, causing the body to slide down towards the lowest place. Such bed bottoms are also known in which the said lamellae are mounted in several layers, either interlaced or parallel. By this means, the necessary strength of the supporting bottom is obtained without making the lamel lae so thick that they get too stiff and feel hard to lie on, but in these doubleor multi-layer constructions, where the lamellae are either separately coupled resiliently to the frame or resiliently interconnected, there will still be the drawback that aheavy bending down of the middle of the thin lamellae will be caused so that the couch sags and is uncomfortable to lie on as it feels too warm and narrow.

The main purpose of the-invention is to indicate a bed bottom which longitudinally accommodates itself to the curves of the body without sagging or shaping itself to the body in the transverse direction, inwhich it forms only a veryflat curve at any point of thelongitudinal extent of the bed bottom.

The invention consists in that each carrying member is formed of two. or more instretchable lamellaewhichl'at their ends are unshiftably interconnected with a slight and constant spacing. 1 The term instretchable as used here means that when subjected to apull the lamellae will not be stretched or elongated perceptibly in the longitudinal direction.

The unshiftable connection between the lamellae entails that a bending down of an upper lamella will cause a pull in the lower lamella to counteract the bending down, so that in spite of the fact that the couch feels soft and yieldable and adapts itself longitudinally to the curves of the body, the bending down caused will not be so heavy that the couch will accommodate itself around the body in the transverse direction.

In the accompanying drawing FIG. 1 is a plan view of one embodiment of the bed bottom, FIG. 2 is an enlarged side view of a carrying member as used in the bed bottom shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 shows diagrammatically a plan view of another embodiment. FIG. 4 shows a modification of a detail of the bed bottom in FIG. 1 or 3. FIGS. 5 and 6 show a further modification of a detail of the bed bottom in FIG. 1 shown in an enlarged scale, in a plan 3,147,495 Patented Sept. 8, 1964 view and in a longitudinal section along line IX-IX in FIG. 5, respectively. FIGS. 7 and 8 show still a further modification of a detail of the bed bottom as viewed in a longitudinal section, and in cross section, respectively. FIG. 9 shows a modification of the detail shown in FIG. 7. FIGS. 10 and 11 show two modified embodiments of the carrying member in cross-section.

The bed bottom shown in FIG. 1 consists of a rectangular frame 4 which may be manufactured of steel tube or some other suited material. Transversely to this frame 4, a number of carrying members 1 are stretched out. Said members are provided with straps 3 of a resilient material, e.g. rubber straps secured at either end, the said straps gripping around the frame 4 and thussecuring the carrying members to the latter.

Each of the carrying members consists of two or more parallel lamellae of instretchable material which are un-. shiftably interconnected at their ends. As examples of suited lamellae may be mentioned wooden lamellae or metal lamellae. A material like rubber, however, is ordi narily inapplicable unless the rubber in question is hardvulcanized.

An embodiment of the carrying members is shown in FIG. 2, where the carrying member consists of two parallel lamellae 1 which at their ends are unshiftably inter connected by means of rivets 2, the lamellae being at their ends kept spaced by means of the ends of the straps 3 which are likewise secured by means of the rivets. The, securing of the rubber straps may, however, also be inde. pendent of the interconnection of the lamellae. In this case, a special spacing member between the ends of the lamellae will be required for ensuring the spacing between them.

The lamellae extend substantially parallel to each other when unloaded. It is, however, sufficient when this sub stantial parallelity exists for the greater part of the extent, of the lamellae, as the lamellae need not be parallel at the ends, where they are clamped together, but mayhere take up amore or less oblique positionin relation to each other dependent on the shape of the spacing member used.

From FIG. 2 it will se seen that the lamellae together with the spacing members, which, as mentioned above, in the case shown are formedby the ends of the straps 3, on account of the rivets 2 form a rectangle with two short,

' stiff sides and a rigid connection between the latter and 1 are completely'right. 'If the lamellae are not quite parallel at their ends the angles will deviate correspondingly from If now the upper lamella is loaded at the middle, so as to bend down, this will, as the angle between the lamella and the rivets 2 is preserved, entail that the rivets take up an oblique position with their lower ends outwards-directed. This causes a considerable pull to be exerted in the lower lamella, and this will to a high degree counteract the bending down of the upper lamella.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the bed bottom consisting of a wooden frame 5 in which carrying members 1 are suspended transversely and longitudinally. In the embodiment shown, the carrying members are interlaced, but they may also be placed in such a way that the two lamellae associated with each longitudinal carrying member extend in the clearances between the lamellae of transverse carrying members.

FIG. 4 shows a detail of a bed bottom of the type shown in FIG. 1 in a slightly modified embodiment. The rodshaped frame side 7 is provided with depressions 8 of a slightly larger width than the width of the straps 3 for ensuring the position of the carrying members on the frame.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show an embodiment in which the lamellae of each carrying member have different widths. The narrow lamellae are designated by 9 and the wide lamellae by 10, and it will be seen that they are mounted in such a way that in each of the two planes defined by the lamellae, narrow lamellae 9 and wide lamellae will alternate.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment in which the carrying members are designed with three lamellae 1 separated from each other by means of the two ends of the strap 3, as will be seen in FIG. 8. The carrying members are mounted in such a way that the lamellae are displaced in relation to each other and, as appears from FIG. 7, the carrying members are mounted side by side in an interdigital manner, the central lamella in each carrying member projecting into the clearance between the two outer lamellae on an adjacent carrying member.

FIG. 9 shows an embodiment of a carrying member in which the spacing between the lamellae is ensured by means of the ends of the strap 3 in combination with a separate spacing member 11. The rectangle effect mentioned above is increased hereby and at the same time one attains, as will be seen from the figure, that the upper lamella lies flush with the upper surface of the tube 4, so that no upwards-projecting edge will be formed by the latter.

FIGS. 10 and 11 show two embodiments with metal lamellae.

In FIG. 10 the upper lamella 21 is provided with downwards-facing flanges 22 along both edges and is together with spacing members formed by the ends 23 of the straps and a spacing member 24, clamped to the lower lamella 25 which, in contradistinction to the lamella 21, has no bent-over flanges. The clamping together is effected by means of a rivet 26. In FIG. 11, the flanges 22 on the lamella 21 is substituted by beads 27. 7

Types like those shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 may also advantageously be used when the lamella consist of ma terials like plastic or fibre glass.

I claim:

1. A bed bottom comprising a polygonal frame, carrying members, and resilient strap members connecting the ends of each carrying member with the opposite sides of said frame, each carrying member consisting essentially of a plurality of separate and unstretchable' lamellae which in the normal unstressed condition extend substantially parallel to and are spaced from each other in a direction transverse to their length, and means between corresponding ends of the lamellae connecting the respective ends of the lamellae to each other and to the said resilient strap members at the respective ends of the carrying members, a portion of the resilient strap member at each end of the carrying member being positioned between and spacing the ends of the lamellae from each other:

2. A bed bottom as claimed in claim 1 in which there are two lamellae in each carrying member, and the portions of the resilient strap member Which are positioned between and spacing said lamellae from each other are the ends of the resilient strap member.

3. A bed bottom as claimed in claim 1 in which there are three lamellae, and the portions of the resilient strap member which are positioned between and spacing said lamellae from each other are the ends of the resilient strap member, one end of the resilient strap member being positioned between and spacing the first and second lamellae from each other, and the other end of the resilient strap member being positioned between and spacing the second and third lamellae from each other.

4. A bed bottom as claimed in claim 1 in which a portion of said plurality of lamellae are displaced in relation to the remainder of said lamellae in a direction transverse to their length and also transverse to their spacing. 5. A bed bottom as claimed in claim 4 in which said carrying members are parallel with each other and at least one of said lamellae extends in said last-mentioned transverse direction sufficien'tly far to overlap with one of the lamellae on the next adjacent carrying member on the frame.

6. A bed bottom as claimed in claim 1 in which the portions of said resilient strap member which are between said lamellae are the ends of the resilient strap member and said carrying member further consists of a separate spacing member between the ends of each of said resilient strap members.

7. A carrying member for a bed bottom, consisting essentially of two resilient strap members, one at each end of the carrying member, and a plurality of separate and unstretchable lamellae which in the normal unstressed condition extend substantially parallel to and are spaced from each other in a direction transverse to their length, and means between corresponding ends of the lamellae connecting the respective ends of the lamellae to each other. and to the said resilient strap members at the respectiveends of the carrying members, a portion of the resilient strap member at each end of the carrying member being positioned between and spacing the ends of the lamellae from each other.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 28,766 Morse June 19, 1860 146,453 Hight Jan. 13, 1874 160,809 Bennett Mar. 16, 1875 167,902 Hoyt Sept. 21, 1875 168,664 Odell Oct. 11, 1875 172,295 Bethune June 18, 1876 187,961 Burch Mar. 6, 1877 254,149 Mott Feb. 28, 1882 FOREIGN PATENTS 723,992 Germany Aug. 14, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No... 3,147,495 September 8, 1964 I Erik Ove Farstrup It is hereby certified that error appears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

In the grant lines 1 and 12, for "Erik Ove", each occurrence, read Erik Ove Farstrup in the headingv to the printed specification, line 3, for "Erik Ove, Farstrup" read Erik Ove Farstrup Signed and sealed this 22nd day of December 1964.

(SEAL) Attest:

ERNEST W. SWI'DER EDWARD J. BRENNER Attesting Officer Commissioner of. Patents 

1. A BED BOTTOM COMPRISING A POLYGONAL FRAME, CARRYING MEMBERS, AND RESILIENT STRAP MEMBERS CONNECTING THE ENDS OF EACH CARRYING MEMBER WITH THE OPPOSITE SIDES OF SAID FRAME, EACH CARRYING MEMBER CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF A PLURALITY OF SEPARATE AND UNSTRETCHABLE LAMELLAE WHICH IN THE NORMAL UNSTRESSED CONDITION EXTEND SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL TO AND ARE SPACED FROM EACH OTHER IN A DIRECTION TRANSVERSE TO THEIR LENGTH, AND MEANS BETWEEN CORRESPONDING ENDS OF THE LAMELLAE CONNECTING THE RESPECTIVE 